Friends, son listeners, welcome to our SunLeaders podcast. Wherever and whenever your ears are joining us, I hope this moment finds you happy and thriving. That is my mission and that’s why I do what I do.

My name is Eric Nutting. I am the co owner of the growth coach of St. Petersburg, Florida. I say co owner as my business partner is also my wife of 35 years, Diane Nutting.

And I think we’re going to touch on that a little bit in today’s episode. Today I get the pleasure of speaking with Tina Yackel, who is. Gosh, where to start.

She’s a friend, a client, a powerful leader in business. I’ve got so many things I can say about her, but rather than me, label her and speak about her as she’s sitting right in front of me. Tina, would you be so kind? First of all, welcome.

I’m delighted that you agreed to do this. Please tell our listeners a little bit about you and what you want them to know about you. Hello, everybody.

So I’m Tina. I’ve been on these podcasts before, but a short version of me, I’m from Key west, left key west in 2000, moved to Gainesville with my husband, raised our kids there. We were there 22 years and moved to St. Petersburg, Florida a year and a half ago.

During that journey, I’ve been a nurse, an entrepreneur in many different businesses, and now run a business here in St. Petersburg with my husband for the last year and a half and have two beautiful kids. And that’s not sure what else you want to say. Well, that’s a good start right there.

But that’s a lot, isn’t it? It is. It is a lot. The history’s a lot.

And what we’re currently doing is a lot. And I think. Let’s just jump in right there.

I know you as this magnificent unit of energy and I think we’ve known each other for not. Have we known each other a year yet? No, I don’t think so. Maybe we’re right around.

Maybe right around. I saw you at, I think a networking lunch or something. I instantly liked you.

You have this beautiful smile and you were just remarkably inviting and friendly. So let me start there. You self identify sometimes as opposite of that, don’t you? I do.

Why? Tell me about that. What is that all about? It’s so interesting you ask that because it’s a book that I’m reading right now as to how do we label ourselves and how do we see ourselves compared to how other people see us? And so I get that a lot. And I don’t always see myself that way.

I see myself a lot more focused, hardcore, mean, driven. And I’m actually grateful that people don’t see me like I see myself, that I can keep that in and people can see the softer side of me. But I do think that I do have both personalities.

Like, I think that I can be super type A hardcore, and then I know when to turn it on and turn it off and be that nurse. Be that loving, gentle person also. Yeah, that nurse is a big part of you, isn’t it? There’s so much compassion in that process, so much empathy.

But then maybe when we think about this process of being an entrepreneur, maybe you’re saying that other part of you needs to drive that forward. Do you think that that duality helps you thrive? Is there any time when part of that gets in the way of the other? Absolutely. I think it always gets in the way.

When I was a nurse, I started off in med surg and mother baby. And then I always joke and say I spent some time in jail. So I actually was a jail nurse for about a year.

And I think that was the place that allowed that tough part of me that I never allowed to come out that time. And I literally got to come home in the morning. I didn’t stay in jail.

But that time I spent in jail really brought out the toughness and was like, you know what? I can be tough, and I am tough, and I can hold my own. Where before I just was very shy and quiet and sweet and loving and would let people take advantage of me and, you know, just be a pushover. And then once I was in jail, I was like, oh, heck, no.

But I still do have that side of me. And then I went. When I left there, then I strictly went to labor and delivery.

And so I was a labor and delivery nurse. And that really, I think, fostered it, too, because you. You’re with a woman who’s giving birth.

It’s the most precious time in somebody’s life. You’re bringing a baby into the world, and I can’t even tell you how many births I would cry, like, as if it was my baby as well. You get so involved, but when it came time to pushing, you had to get in their face.

You had to be tough, and you couldn’t let the mom say, no, no, no. You had to be like, listen, look at my eyes. And so I saw a lot of nurses really struggle with that tough part, and that was something I could quickly turn on.

And you look at me, we’re going to focus and we’re going to get through this together, and we’re not backing down. What creates that switch? What pushes you to that point? I don’t know if I’ve ever really thought about it intellectually. Probably if you think of it like a bridge, like, I can’t get over the bridge, and I’m not going to get stuck on this side.

Like, I got to get tough to get over the bridge. And so we got to get tough to have a baby. And that’s the only way I can help her right now.

So being a Being. Being passive is not going to help anybody. We’re not going to get the baby out.

And so I think it’s seeing the end goal and knowing, okay, you can be nice so long, and now it’s time to get to business. Now we gotta do the job. And, yeah, I don’t.

I don’t know if intellectually I know a switch. I think you used a word that’s really interesting to me in context when you say passive. Compassion’s not passive, is it? When we’re thinking of, I’m gonna be compassionate, I’m gonna be here for you.

But that’s not a passive thing. That’s not a passive emotion. It’s not a passive.

It’s interesting you say that because to me, it comes so natural that it feels passive. Interesting. I, you know, with my husband being in law enforcement, he’s naturally always sees or is always very cautious and sees the worst in people.

And we’ve been married 27 years now, and I don’t see that in people. I always see the good in people. And there’s been a number of times in our marriage where he’ll say, don’t mess with that.

Stay away from her or him. That’s their. And I’m like, no, they’re lovely.

And then a couple months later, I’m like, dang it, you were right. Because I don’t see it. I will give the shirt off my back to anybody.

I’m just so. It’s very passive. It’s very natural for me.

Interesting. So who is the better judge of character between the two of you? I would say neither one of us, actually. I think it’s a compromise.

I think we would both be lost and honest, honestly, without each other. That is a great. Really opening for me to really talk about what I really want to focus on.

We would be lost without each other. Right. We have this marriage that’s been a long relationship, and now we Made this crazy decision, right? Hey, I’ve got an idea.

Let’s go into business together. Wow. How about that? Significantly different, isn’t it? Very.

Let’s talk about that. Tell me what your preconceived ideas were, going into business with your husband. Well, he’s always balanced me out.

So when I move at 100 miles an hour, he will slow me down. If I’m trying to make a business decision, I can bring him in to be the level head and be like, babe, look at all of this. And what do you think? And he can see things that I can’t see.

He’s very grounded. He’s very cautious. He does not move fast.

The joke in our family is if we were on a plane and we were crashing, I’m going to just grab the first thing and be like, let’s go, babe. We’re jumping, and I’m not even going to check the parachute. And he’s going to say, he’s always said, yeah, you could do that, because I’ve checked the parachute 20 times before we got in the plane.

And so it’s always. I mean, that’s just how it’s been been in everything that I’ve done previous. So my thought, going into business, I’m like, this will be magical.

I mean, like, we’re the best of both. Like, I move at 100 miles an hour, and he’s very methodical and very precise, and what a great balance. And whew.

Hasn’t always been that way. What do you think has been the biggest challenge? Because I don’t know if we’ve talked about this already, but we have a few different businesses. We do.

Right now, you and I are speaking specifically of this is the business. And really, by default, when we’re married, we own all businesses together because our partner has to go through those labors with us. Right.

But closetivity, specifically, we designed a business for the two of us to run. So what was the first oh, my gosh moment? Like, oh, this is. We’re on shaky ground here.

What’s the first thing we experienced? You haven’t done that yet. That was probably the first thing. Like, seriously, you’re still on number one.

I’m, like, on number 20, whatever the task was, because he’s very precise, he’s very deliberate. He doesn’t just wing it. And I am in sales, and I’ll wing it.

I can talk to the wall. I’ll figure it out as we go. And he’s not like that.

And so that was probably the first thing when you know you’re having to learn. We started a business we knew nothing about, right? And so you gotta learn everything. And he’s still on step one.

And I’m like, dude, we got 10 other things we gotta learn. Let’s go. And he.

He’s like, I haven’t finished module one. I’m like, come on. But that’s really fascinating, isn’t it? Because you just pointed out that was the strength and that’s how you balance each other out.

The strength was that’s in life. But now that we’re moving into a business and we think it’s gotta have its own pace and it’s gotta drive. And I going to drive this forward.

And maybe your business partner isn’t driving the way you want it to be done. Yeah, no, it’s very true. And I will tell you this.

Last year and a half, I have learned so much about me, good and bad. And in my other businesses, I would always say, why do people have such a hard time working for me or working with me? Like, I feel like I’m pretty nice. Like, why? Let me jump in there for a second.

Do you find that to be a common challenge? Do you find that to be the feedback you get? 100%. Okay, go on. And so now working with my husband and then having the person that you love more than anything besides your kids say to you, I see why nobody wants to work with you.

Wow, I don’t want to work with you. That’s really, really interesting to me. So let me share a little bit here.

First of all, listeners, I’m a business coach. I introduce myself as the growth coach, but I have this passion for working with couples in business. It’s hugely important to me because I’ve been married for 35 years, Diane and I, and I’ve had all these businesses, and I always have seen a pattern where I test her patience, I test her resolve.

I have a much different temperament than she does. She likes structure. I do not.

I look at rules as a suggestion. So in that we’ve really had to find our way. So let’s talk about core temperament for the two of you.

You and Steve. When do they match? When do they not match? How can we make them thrive together? What have we experienced in that process? So we react very differently to just about every circumstance. We have found that when I joked on Friday when we were at a networking event that I couldn’t wait to get out at 4:15 because I was going to have a date and I was going on a date with my husband, yes, we are the best in business.

When I’m half time to be his wife and not his business partner, that’s huge. And so when we purposely set the time to just be husband and wife, then we are a lot more compassionate with each other. We’re a lot more tolerable when we don’t have that time to be husband and wife.

Both of us have very short patience with each other. And so we have learned that no matter what’s going on in the world, like, one of us will usually say, stop. Yes, we got to go out, we got to go on a date, we got to go for a walk, we got to do something, because I need you to be my wife, not my partner.

And so it’s not always easy because if you let that get away from you and the irritation builds up, builds up, that may take days before you want to be his wife again. So it’s catching it early. But when we are the best is when we are husband and wife, not partners.

Gotcha. I’m going to ask a few questions on that and then kind of share a little bit again. For Diane and myself, sometimes it goes the other way.

We enjoy playing so, so much over the course of all these years that sometimes we don’t get to the business we have to get to. Oh, and I think what’s interesting, and I do these check ins with my clients, right. And I say, who do.

Who are we using as an excuse? I use Diane as an excuse all the time. Well, she wants to do this, so I guess I won’t do the work I have to do. And then I just put myself behind, you know, more and more.

But you pointed out something that I like to talk to couples about. We do have to be mindful that we can’t let this business get in the way of our relationship. The relationship comes before the business.

The business is a vehicle to move our lives forward. But when it’s the all or nothing sort of thing, and we’re relying on this to pay for both of our lives, that’s a challenge. That’s a concern, Right.

And so that causes these stresses. And sometimes it’s difficult to disengage from each other when we’re sharing that same stress. I can come home after an office job and I can say, oh, my day was horrible.

You wouldn’t believe it. And I vent, and you go, oh, here? Yeah, you share your day with me. But when we’re living the same day, what do we do? How can we work that out? You can’t get away.

Because, you know, the same. You both have the same stresses. When I was a nurse and he was a cop, we literally.

And I kid you not put my hand on a bible. We had a rule in our marriage that I didn’t want to hear how bad the people were in the world. I didn’t want to know who we arrested.

I just wanted to choose and think everybody was wonderful. And he didn’t want to hear about vaginas and birth. And so he’s like, I don’t want to hear that your woman hemorrhaged and you had blood all over your face.

Like, I don’t want to hear any of that. And so we would venture in our own separate groups. Oh, I see.

We had. I had my nurse friends. He had his cop friends.

When we came home, we didn’t bring you home. Okay. So we were husband and wife, mom and dad.

That’s what we did. And then when I went into real estate, I didn’t always have friends so early in real estate, because I would joke and say, you’re a realtor or your customers are your friends for the transaction. But once a transaction is over, everybody goes away.

Like, you don’t talk to them anymore. And so at first and early in real estate, I didn’t have anybody to vent to, and so I would come home and vent. And he said early in our marriage, like, babe, I get it, but I don’t get it.

Like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And so again, we kind of made a rule that, listen, if I come home and I need to vent, you don’t have to. You don’t have to fix it.

Just let me vent. No, it’s not your thing. Just let me vent, and then I’m done.

I just need to, like. And then we’re done. And so, you know, again, that was my thing, though, and he still was a cop, so he did his thing.

Right? Well, now his thing is my thing, and my thing is his thing. Plus, I have all the other things. And so, yeah, it’s very.

It’s challenging because you don’t get away from it. So can we implement the same sort of strategy? Can we have our own venting groups even though we’re business partners? What does that look like? I don’t know. I don’t know if we know enough people yet.

I mean, I think I’ve met enough people that I probably could. I don’t think he’s met enough people that he has his friends or his people to do that. Like, he doesn’t really.

He doesn’t network like I do. Like, he goes to the customer’s house, he puts in their ends, their closets or whatever, and he knows the people at the shop and then he’s done. Gotcha.

So we don’t have those same groups that we had in Gainesville, so that’s something we’ve talked about. But like he said, he’s like, well, if I have friends and I go out to the bar, I sure as hell ain’t going to talk about work. Fair enough.

Right. So, yeah, I think that would be great. I don’t exactly know how to implement that.

I know I’ve talked about it a couple times. So, listeners, this is not a plug for me, but I think that sometimes is a reason why coaches exist. So there is that or therapists, whatever.

So there’s that third party. We come in, we’ve got our weekly. We get it out and we can leave going, well, that’s a relief, you know, but we can do that with our friend groups and maybe, you know, we don’t have those in place yet.

And I hear what he’s saying, it’s like, okay, I finally got distance from this. I’m ready to have a beer. I’m not going to be talking about all this, but we’re talking about being healthy and unhealthy and thriving in a relationship which is connected to a business.

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Well, I. I really believe in my heart, and I’ve done so many different coaches and all different businesses. I really believe in my heart that I can’t change anybody else. The only person I can change is me.

And we’re not supposed to change anybody else, right? Correct. And so I. If he blows up about something or if he does something, that’s his thing. I’m.

The only thing I’m in charge of is how I perceive. Okay. And so I have to practice on me.

And if I’m perceiving something that I don’t like, then I have to look inside me and say, well, why did that trigger you? Like, why does that bother you? And again, don’t always know the exact answers, but that’s what came up on my run today, was that, you know, what, if he needs to blow up at something, then he needs to do it. That’s how he copes. Whatever he has to do his thing.

The only person I’m in charge of is me. And if I react for something that he did and I don’t like how I reacted, the only person that I can do anything about is me. So why did that trigger me? What set me off? I think it’s the intimate relationship that sets you off, isn’t it? It’s the fact that you feel so responsible for so much when we’re that close to someone, isn’t that it? I think that’s part of it.

I also think it’s fear based. Okay. Yeah.

Fear of what? I think fear of failure. I think fear of making. Letting somebody down.

I’m gonna. We’re taking a moment, ladies and gentlemen. You trigger something.

Triggers are healthy. Triggers are good. We do have many crying sessions.

That doesn’t mean I want you to. I don’t want to make you cry, but I mean, it’s just healthy stuff because we’re solving problems. Yeah.

I think it’s because we want to leave this room ready to thrive. Right? Yeah. I think it’s just fear based, you know, I think it’s.

You don’t want to let anybody down. You want to. I’m big at my word.

And so if I tell you I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it if I have to die doing it. Yeah. And so when you feel that something didn’t go right, it probably has nothing to do with me or nothing that I could have done anything about, but it triggers that failure.

It figures. Triggers like, how can I done it better? Or what did I miss? Or. And so you end up taking the blame.

And it’s not mine to take. Right. Not my blame to take.

So here, this is where this gets so special, isn’t it? In a couple, in an intimate relationship, when we’re in business together, our successes really are combined. And I try not to let my clients use the F word, the fail word. I know there’s philosophies out there and books out there that, you know, failure is good, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah, but I think it gives it a stigma.

I’d rather just say this is a learning experience. How do we move forward? Right. But putting that aside, we’ve been through 20 plus years of marriage.

Me, 30 plus years of marriage. I would say that’s a huge success. So maybe the fear is, oh, my gosh, is this enterprise that we started going to ruin this? Is that the fear part of it? Sure, yeah.

Yeah. Because, you know, we have uprooted from where? I mean, honestly, our life was pretty darn comfortable there and we uprooted on a, you know, a whim, basically, and moved here to have a different life to do, be different, you know, empty nesters. And we wanted to start over and.

And we moved here and with these lovely grandiose ideas that everything was going to be amazing. We’re in our dream home, we’re our dream place. Everything’s going to be great.

And there are days that it’s great, but it’s not all great. Tell me right now your vision for the next greatness. What does this next 10 years look like? We.

We did uproot. We’re kind of in two places right now. Correct.

But we’re here. And what I define as one of the most remarkable communities I’ve ever been in. I’ve been on the west coast of our country.

Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, all over the Central Florida area. I’ve never been happier in a space than I am right here. It is one of the most welcoming places I’ve ever been.

What does life look like over the next 10 years? That the raw, complete answer is, hell if I know. Does it matter? I can’t see it. And that bothers me because I’m a big Visionary person.

I’m a big dreamer. I’m a big vision board, and I freaking don’t know. Five years ago, you didn’t picture yourself in St. Petersburg.

No. Five years ago. The reason we’re here is because the house that we bought, I had a vision board with that.

When you walk in the house that we bought on the kitchen, the what you look out was on my vision board. And so I knew. I didn’t know what city it was going to be.

Gotcha. But I knew what I was going to be looking out of, and I knew what I was going to be looking at. Gotcha.

And so when we were goofing off one weekend looking at houses, and I walked in this home, I was like, oh, my God, we’re moving. And he’s like, what? What? What? No, I was like, babe, you don’t understand. I will show you my vision board when I get home.

This is what I’ve been looking at. And it’s there. And so you’ve been passing it every day.

Yeah, I mean, it is. This is. I. This is where I’m supposed to be.

Right. And so, yeah, so that was on my vision board for years. I knew I was going somewhere with that vision.

And God blessed us. Well, okay. God blessed us.

Belief systems, blood belief patterns, what we believe in are a huge part of how we navigate this world. Right? So what I ask people, and I always say when I work with people, look, my belief system does not matter. In this.

Your belief system matters. And does it serve you? And so I ask you, knowing your. Your thought process and your faith, has God ever failed you? No, but I jokingly, and I probably shouldn’t joke about it, but I joke and say, God blessed us.

And now he’s like, let’s see how tough you really are. Oh, for sure. Right, right, right.

I think that’s. Let’s see how much you can really do. So I do the opposite.

I say, listen, I don’t want you to think I can handle more than I think I can handle. This is it. I don’t want to do more.

Don’t. Don’t overestimate what I can do. And it’s funny because I say just the opposite.

I’m like, bring it on. You think I can do it? Let’s go. That’s so funny.

But, yeah, I think it’s. It’s a. But what I. What I’m trying to do is I’m trying to get us to connect to this thought process of trust.

If we trust in our belief system now I’m wondering when we talk about fear of success and fear of failure with so many people deal with this idea of imposter syndrome, right? The world is littered with failed entrepreneurs, failed kids. I use that word because of these fears. But it comes down to a lack of trust.

Don’t you believe trust in ourself? Now we’re in business with our spouse. Do we trust our spouse? Talk to me about trust in yourself. How important is that? When does it waver? How can we lean into it to move ourselves forward? So I do believe that everything I have, everything I’ve achieved, everything I’ve done is because God has blessed me.

Because I joke and say there should have been no reason that I have done what I have done. There should not have been any reason. I have done nothing but believe in God.

And when he shows me something, I just blindly jump in and I don’t question and I joke and say, I had another vision. Guess where we’re going. And everybody in my family’s like, oh God, mom had another vision.

And it’s true. And so when we’re in these tough times, I do heavily rely on God. And I ask daily, like, I don’t know where I’m supposed to go today, like, guide me or who am I supposed to meet or what am I supposed to do? Because I have no idea what I’m doing right now.

And he does. He keeps opening doors. I think the challenge when you’re working with the spouse is that one could blindly have so much faith and the other one might not.

Okay. And then that also triggers fear. That also could trigger some anger.

That also could trigger emotions like, why are you so scared? He’s never let us down. But that’s not what a man does. A man provides.

Well, that’s an interesting thought. That used to be definitely the way we were designed. But this beast of capitalism has really driven us in a direction, hasn’t it? Used to be one income, now it’s two.

Now it’s two incomes and side hustles. Correct. So is that our place? Is a man supposed to provide? And then this is something I really wanted to kind of dig into in a partnership like this.

Husband and wife or just partners? Because I work with other people that aren’t husband wives. When do we lead and when do we follow? Who takes leadership? How do we lead in a couple? Yeah, I, I don’t think so. I’ll be a little old fashioned.

I don’t think a man needs to provide in this sense of money anymore. I see it As a. A mutual partner’s married, not everybody pulling their own weight.

Like, I got your back, you got my back. My dollar’s your dollar. Like, we’re in it together.

And so I don’t see as one needing to dominate over the other. My money has never been my money. It’s always been our money.

And so, and I think we both feel that way. I don’t think either one of us feels like one needs to be better than the other. But I do feel this is where maybe the old fashioned, and some people might disagree, I do do feel a man still needs to be a man.

And my husband is definitely a man. And so he wants to lead, he wants to be in charge. And sometimes I’m the meaner one or I’m the tougher one.

And there is that balance. When do you pipe up as the wife and say, I’m taking over, I got it, and when do you not? And leading and following, that could be a very delicate line because you’re married. He is the man.

He is the leader of the family. But sometimes I might need to be like, oh, hell no. And that’s where we go back from the beginning, where I have that ability.

I’m not afraid to confront people. I’m not afraid to say, oh, that ain’t happening. Let me tell you how it’s really going to work.

And he is the cop. And not that he’s afraid, he’s not at all, but he is the peacemaker. He was an amazing cop because he has so much compassion and he’s not there to just be an ass.

Like, he can take a huge situation and just really bring it down. And he may end up arresting somebody, he may end up giving him a ticket. But I would say probably 9 out of 10, they almost always end up thanking him.

And you just arrested him. And they’re like, dude, thanks. You know, because he has, he has a gift of just being super amazing and compassionate.

Where in business that’s good, but sometimes you need to be, oh, hell no. Here’s what’s interesting. You know, in a more traditional setup, we would have well defined roles.

This is what I do. This is what you do. How does that work in a partnership like this? It’s very blurred.

We’ve worked on it. I mean, there are things that he does that I purposely don’t know how to do. I’m not learning how to do it.

I’m not doing it. That’s your thing. I don’t even want to know.

There’s things that I do that he’s like, I don’t even want to know. That’s your thing. So we, we have those roles where he just doesn’t know how to do what I do and I don’t know how to do what he does.

But it’s the daily communication or, or the follow up with the customer or the customer service or explaining appropriate expectations, you know, those kind of daily things. When you don’t have an assistant who does it all the time. Right.

It goes flops, flip flops between the two of us. And like you said, I’m in two different cities. So if I’m in Gainesville, he’s got to take over.

Like I’m not here to do it. So then he’s got to step in those roles and do it. So the lines do get blurred.

Gotcha. Then we have to think about systems. Right.

Systems in place and how do we both follow those systems and then how do we trust each other and how do we trust those systems? So we’re back to trust again. We’re right back. Yeah.

And so when you have one hiccup or you have one thing that doesn’t go, or it could be as simple as why did you say it that way? Right, right, right, right, right, right. You could have said it this way. You know, I, I think I’m guilty of that for sure.

Right. I mean, again, my husband has, he has amazing gifts that I don’t have and I will never have. But he’s very direct, he’s very to the point and he’s very detailed.

And so if he’s going to send you an email, you’re going to probably have to scroll and it’s going to be outlined and it’s going to have bullet points and I’m going to send an email that’s probably going to be 10 words or less because I’ll be like, shit’s too long and all of that. So we communicate very differently and there’s places for both of that. Absolutely.

And, and I think the systems are something that is definitely a goal for this year. Cause I think if we had one person who did all of that talking, then you take both of our interpretations out and now we uniform it to one person. Right, right, right.

It’s just growing the business to get to that point. Right. And it’s always, you know, the beginning’s always a challenge.

It is, yeah. So let’s talk about closetivity, specifically. What do you enjoy about it? What should your clients expect from it? So I think what I love most about it is I love being creative.

I love networking. I love getting out. I love meeting people.

I love talking to people. I love going for a run and coming home and being like, oh, I have a new idea. We could do this or we could do that.

Like, it just lights me up. I love that part. I love the growth part.

I love growing the business. That lights me up. I love it.

What was the second part? Well, I just kind of. I want our listeners to get to know the different enterprises you have and why they exist and why they should come to you. So we have.

Let’s just talk about the different things we do. Okay. We do real estate.

We have an IV business, and we have closetivity. Closetivity, specifically, is the business you run with Steve, correct? And am I missing one? That’s just those three. So let’s talk.

We talked about closetivity. Take us through your passion for real estate. Let’s talk about real estate a little bit.

So what I liked about real estate and still do, although this market is very different, I love taking somebody who didn’t know anything about the process and just totally protecting them and making sure they got the home they wanted. Nobody took advantage of them. They got the deal they wanted.

We closed on time and they had very little stress because I took it all on and we got the deal done. A lot of that nurturing from being a nurse. Right, right.

And so that was what I loved more than anything that I always joke and say, if there was one job I could have, but I wouldn’t make any money, was taking, like, weak people who can’t fight for themselves and just fight for them and just be like, oh, no, I’m sorry, you went. No, we ain’t had. Let me tell you how this is going to work, because it’s just a superpower that I have, but I would never make any money, and I would be fighting all day, and that’s just not fun.

But that is what I loved about real estate, because I could be in control of the transaction. I can be. Oh, I’m sorry, you’re not going to talk to us like that.

Like, we’re not. We’re not going there. And so I could be that jail nurse.

I could stand up to people on the other side and I could make sure that when they moved into their home, they felt like we got a deal or we were taken care of or nobody took advantage of us or whatever the situation was. That’s what I loved about real estate. I. In Gainesville, which I still do real estate up there, a lot of Our customers are cops and nurses.

That’s just because of where we come from. Right? And so cops are just very different breeds. And so I think one of the things they liked about me most up there is because I was very straight to the point, like, oh, that’s not happening.

Let me tell you how this is going to happen. And so that’s kind of the personality. I grew up there.

And so it was very direct, very straight to the point, so people would know that they could come to me and there’d be no bs. So I like that. I like that.

The closets, I really. We got into it because we thought it would be amazing to work together. As I roll my eyes, but it still is, just maybe not consistently because we have growing pains.

And. And it will be. And it will be.

And we are the only one in Florida so far that survived a year. And so, yeah, there’s challenges. And before, in the other businesses, the challenges, I just had to deal with them myself.

So I didn’t have anybody else. I had myself. I dealt with them.

Now I have to deal with them with somebody else. So that makes it challenging. And I said before, why nobody liked to work with me because I am challenging.

And now I have the person who I love, who beside me, and I’m challenging. I get it. I’m challenging.

And so, you know, you have to work through that. But the closet business, there’s just so much that our competitors aren’t doing that I want to do that. I’m like, we could conquer the world with this.

I mean, there’s just so much we could do. But again, I move at 100 miles an hour, so I have to slow it down to a steadier pace. But this business is going to be huge in five years.

I want to have that vision. And I believe in my heart that God keeps us going because there is something there. And I believe that he would have let us fail in the first year if there wasn’t.

And we didn’t. And we weren’t negative. I mean, we didn’t make a ton of money, but we weren’t negative.

And so there is something there. The number one feedback we get from our customers is in causativity, is you did what you said you were going to do. You showed up.

When you said you were going to show up, you called me back. When you said you were going to call me back. My husband, after the closet is installed, he wipes everything down.

He vacuums, he polishes. People are like, contractors, don’t do this right and so the customer service part, we excel way beyond our competitors. I mean, there’s just no comparison.

And your reviews show it. Right. I mean, and that’s what everybody says.

It’s like, wow, they. They actually did what they said they were gonna do. Right.

And so I think there’s something there to expand on and. And feed, grow that. The IV business, honestly, is just for fun.

I don’t do a whole lot. I don’t advertise it. I don’t do anything.

I like it. For me, that’s why we got it. So my husband and I do it, and then as I’ve been doing it, and I’m like, you wouldn’t believe the difference I feel.

And then my friends are like, I want some of that. I want some of that. And so it’s just kind of organically grown like that.

So is there an unknown business that we have not identified that you’ll be doing in a couple years or. That’s a huge business. We’re going to hold to these three for a while.

What takes most of your time right now? Causativity. Right? Yeah. And mainly because I have people, people in real estate.

So a team that you can rely on. I have. I have people who help me.

I have a team. I have an agent. I have a transaction broker.

I have a marketing team. I have people. And that’s where we’re trying to get this business to.

For sure. And that’s where I need. Right.

That’s where I need to go. Yeah. So I have gotten to where I’ve got people in Gainesville.

I. I do think the IV business could be huge if I could put any time in it. I think all of them can be and should be and will be. My goal is to get everything moving, all the waters flowing in the same direction.

Right? Yeah. And it starts with me being a wife. Right.

It all starts there. So now we’re coming back down to just basic relationship stuff. Right.

Healthy boundaries for a couple. So we can be husband and wife. We can have our intimacy.

We’re not mad because of the business. Right. And you guys are doing a great job of celebrating that.

You’re deliberately putting time aside to do that. It’s just these little wrinkles, these little frustrations that happen. It is.

And it would be with any other partner. Absolutely. It’s just because I love him.

Right, right, right, right, right. I think you two are an absolute joy. I was hoping that he would be here to kind of talk through this a little bit.

But I also know that being you know, in the same room as the two of you, you probably might not maybe contribute quite as much because he’s more of a listener, right? He. He is, yeah. He would let me do most of the talking, and then he would just pipe in here and there.

But, yeah, he is the observer. Yeah, he just sits back and we would joke with our kids because I would get things stirred up and then get everybody riled up, and then I’d be like, babe, take over. Calm it down.

So, yeah, I’m the. He just. He lets me be me.

He lets me go and be whatever I want to be, and then he pulls me in when it’s time to be pulled in and just, like, settle it down or whatever the situation is. Yeah. All right, well, I want you to be able to speak to the listeners one more time and tell them everything you need them to know and how to get a hold of you.

Because what you provide is excellent, Diana and I definitely want you to come out. And, I mean, we live a few towns away, but, you know, we need it. So tell everybody who you are, how to get a hold of you.

So I am Tina Yaekel. I am a realtor in Gainesville, Florida. That Phone number is 352-213-1084.

Go, Gators. I also can sell real estate here in St. Pete, and I’ve done a couple. We do custom closets with closetivity with my husband and I. And we are also with closetivity.

I didn’t even talk about it, but we are starting a whole organizing system, part of that. So that’s coming. Nice.

That phone number. 727-554433. Right? Yeah.

727-55-4433. I think that’s right. Okay, great.

And then for the IVs, any of those numbers will work. And what the heck, let’s just go have fun. Yeah.

Friends, reach out to Tina. Tina, I appreciate you being here. It’s awesome.

I’m going to wrap this up and then we’ll say goodbye. SunLeaders is a vibrant community of leaders dedicated to fostering collaboration and community engagement. We meet twice a month on the first and third Friday of the month.

This Friday coming up is a little bit different for us. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, we’ll be taking a field trip to off site to the Museum of Motherhood. If you’d like to partake in that, please reach out to us.

We also have a Facebook group. We’d love for you to engage with us. My name is Eric Nutting Co.

Owner of the Growth Coach. I do really have a passion for working with couples. So reach out to me if you are a couple in business and would like just a simple conversation.

I appreciate you. We’ll talk to you next time. Sam.